Funky file names appearing !SSL! > FlashHelp subfolder (e.g., FAE4D~1.HTM)

[pjv]

We have a RoboHelp 7 project that is currently being generated as FlashHelp, shortly going to be RoboHelp 8 > FlashHelp Pro as we've installed RoboHelp Server 8.  Before we move to RoboHelp 8 > FlashHelp Pro, I want to understand why certain topics that look fine in the project top level folder are showing up in !SSL! > FlashHelp folder with a funky file name.

In preparation for the conversion to RoboHelp 8, we just went through all of our projects and shortened up file names, checked for special characters in file names, made sure that spaces were replaced with underscores in file names, etc.  Specifically, we found that long file names in the project folder would result in odd named files in the !SSL!>FlashHelp folders. So, we spent a lot of time shortening up file names.  We also blew away the old FlashHelp folder and re-generated to make sure that the funky names were not included. I checked the backup of the clean up day's !SSL!>FlashHelp folders and there were NO funky file names (i.e., ~ in the file names).

One day after the clean up, we did some edits to the project but not to the files in question. When I look at the newly generated !SSL!>FlashHelp folder, we have 2 topic files with odd names.   See attached jpg file that shows the project file with the correct file name and then the !SSL!>FlashHelp folder that has the odd file names.

How do I stop this from happening as it is very annoying?

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

We can't view the attachment so will have to guess here. The odd file name appears to possibly be a temporary file. Have you examined these to see what they contain?

If you want us to see images, please avoid attaching them. Instead, the camera icon is a much better choice as they appear immediately.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7 or 8 within the day - $24.95! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[pjv]

Rick

I used the camera to upload the jpg (see below) that shows my project folders. Also, attached same image in Word document.

FYI -- I just converted the same project to RoboHelp 8 > FlashHelp so that's what you're seeing in the attached jpg and Word document.  The 2 topics mentioned have funky file names in the !SSL!> FlashHelp > FAQs_and_More folder

FA5D95~1.HTM

FAEA4D~1.HTM

If I look in the FAQs_and_More folder at the project level, the correct file name displays.  These 2 files are also in my temp directory with 9/9/09 date showing the !SSL! folder path.

What's weird is when I view the generated help from my C drive and display the properties of the FAEA4D~1.HTM topic in the !SSL!, I see the following:

file:///C:/PARA%20Online%20Help/!SSL!/FlashHelp/FAQs_and_More/FAQ_I_currently_have_a_trial_that_does...

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Wow, those are some seriously long file names!

You might try changing the HTML file names so that they are shorter. I've seen reports in the past where extremely long file names have been known to cause issues in projects.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7 or 8 within the day - $24.95! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[pjv]

As I mentioned before, we just went through the entire project and shorted the names.  We chose the longest name that was not generating a funky file in the !SSL! folder as the baseline and then made all the long file names slightly shorter than that one.

Are you saying they're still too long?  What's the suggested maximum file name length?

Why didn't topics with file names that are the same length or longer generate funky file names in the !SSL! folder?  Seems strange that only 2 got created when I generated FlashHelp.